Aug 28, 2014
Smoke rises from buildings in Novoazovsk, eastern Ukraine, that were shelled by separatists. AFP
Ukraine accused Russian forces of launching a new military incursion across its border on Wednesday, a day after the leaders of both countries agreed to work towards ending a separatist war in the east of the country.
The accusation, which could not be immediately verified, quickly dented any sense of cautious optimism from Tuesday’s late-night talks between presidents Vladimir Putin and Petro Poroshenko on resolving the five-month conflict.
Ukrainian military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said a group of Russian soldiers had crossed the border in armoured infantry carriers and a truck and entered the eastern town of Amvrosiyivka, not far from where Ukraine detained 10 Russian soldiers on Monday.
Lysenko said that fighting in the towns of Horlivka and Ilovaysk to the north and east respectively had killed about 200 pro-Russian separatists and destroyed tanks and missile systems. He said 13 Ukrainian service personnel had been killed in the past 24 hours and 36 had been wounded.
No comment was immediately available from the Russian defence ministry on the alleged incursion.
Russia has repeatedly denied sending weapons and soldiers to help the eastern rebels, and says the men captured on Monday had crossed an unmarked section of the border by mistake.
“As for the latest wave of panic in Ukrainian media that Russia is joining the war - if Russia joined the war, the counter-offensive would already be in Kiev,” Denis Pushilin, a former separatist leader, told reporters in Moscow.
The disputed question of direct Russian involvement is at the heart of the crisis, in which the United States and European Union have imposed sanctions on Russia and Moscow has responded in kind. Russia has beefed up forces on the Ukrainian border and Nato has responded by stepping up exercises in eastern Europe.
Ukraine’s Poroshenko promised after meeting Mr Putin to work on an urgent ceasefire plan to defuse the conflict, in which the rebels have declared two breakaway eastern republics, together forming a region they refer to as Novorossiya (New Russia). Mr Putin called the talks in Belarus positive, but said it was not for Russia to work out the details of truce terms between Kiev and the rebels.
“We can only contribute to create a situation of trust for a possible, and in my view, extremely necessary, negotiation process,” he said.
A rebel leader, Oleg Tsaryov, wrote on Facebook that he welcomed the outcome of the talks, but the separatists would not stop short of full independence.
“Probably the most important result is Vladimir Putin’s proposal to mediate between Ukraine and Novorossiya. This is a real breakthrough,” he said.
But he added: “It must be understood that a genuine settlement of the situation is only possible with the participation of representatives of Novorossiya. We will not allow our fate to be decided behind our back...
“Now we are demanding independence. We don’t trust the Ukrainian leadership and don’t consider ourselves part of Ukraine. The guarantee of our security is our own armed forces. We will decide our own fate.”
Meanwhile, Russia dismissed Ukraine’s claims that Moscow plans to block gas transit to Europe, saying on Wednesday that the assertions are groundless. His comments were published after Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk said earlier on Wednesday Kiev knew of Russian plans to halt gas flows this winter to Europe.
Russia’s foreign minister said that Moscow was not interested in breaking up Ukraine despite respecting declarations of independence by the two main eastern regions.
“We expressed full respect for the results (of the May referendums) and said the political implementation of what the citizens of southeast Ukraine voted for must be realised through negotiations. We are not interested in breaking up (Ukraine),” Sergei Lavrov said during a meeting with Kremlin supporters in central Russia.
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